Blushing: Expressions of Love in Poems and Letters

by Paul B. Janeczko

The thumping of your heart in your chest. A pit in your stomach. A blush. These are the symptoms of love sickness, and if you've ever experienced them, this book is for you.

Critically acclaimed poet and anthologist, Paul Janeczko has turned his attention to a new compilation of love poems for teens that collects the most poignant and moving musings about love from a diverse group of classic poets and writers like Shakespeare, Dickinson, Whitman, Millay, Angelou, and many more.

This is a book girls will carry with them always. They will dog-ear the pages, pass it to friends, sleep with it. And they will go back to it again and again and find in it the drama, the pain, the joy of loving.

Genres: Poetry, Young Adult, Romance

112 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2004

About the author

Paul B. Janeczko is a poet and teacher and has edited more than twenty award-winning poetry anthologies for young people, including STONE BENCH IN AN EMPTY PARK, LOOKING FOR YOUR NAME, SEEING THE BLUE BETWEEN, and A POKE IN THE I, which was an American Library Association Notable Book.

Reviews

[gieb · Rating 3 out of 5]

buku tercepat yang saya baca dalam sejarah pembacaan saya. bukan karena saya mahir bahasa inggris. tapi karena saya baca di sebuah waktu yang beku. ketika si pemberi buku berada tepat di depan saya. (ah. sebuah waktu yang selalu saya nantikan). ternyata ada pengaruhnya. puisi-puisi dalam buku ini dengan sukarela melesak dalam hati saya tanpa saya minta. aneh ya. (saat saya tulis review ini. si pemberi buku sedang di toilet).

buku ini cocok bagi anda yang sedang jatuh cinta, patah hati, atau dalam keadaan yang berhubungan dengan cinta-cintaan. (duh. saya mendadak jadi abg ya). dalam bahasa yang puitis, cinta bisa diterjemahkan demikian mengharu biru. menenggelamkan ganas jeram pribadi. menganggap bahwa hari ini adalah apriori dari masa lalu. bahwa hari ini tidak berhubungan dengan masa lalu. pun masa datang. (saya meracau nih). tapi begitulah. saya cuma ingin menegaskan. bahwa hari ini -hari dimana saya tulis review ini- adalah hari dimana waktu demikian hening dan beku. (jadi curhat deh).

saran saya: beli dan bacalah buku ini ketika seseorang yang 'meruntuhkan' hati anda telah berhasil membekukan waktu anda.

selamat membekukan waktu. karena saya sudah mengalaminya. detik ini. beberapa jam ke depan. dan saya meleleh karenanya.

[Beth · Rating 5 out of 5]

Review: https://hiplibrariansbookblog.com/200...

[Kelci | Steeped in Stories · Rating 3 out of 5]

”She wants a man she can just / unfold when she needs him / then fold him up again / like those 50 cent raincoats / women carry in their purses / in case they get caught in stormy weather.

This one has her thumb out / for a man who’s going her way. / She’ll hitch with him awhile, / let him take her down the road / for a piece.

But I want to take you where you’re going, / I’m unfolding for you / like a roadmap you can never again fold up / exactly the same as before.”

Roadmap-for J.R. by Harryette Mullen

This was a good collection of poetry. I’m pretty sure my sister and I got this book from a Scholastic book fair when I was younger and I never read it cover-to-cover, only skimmed it. I’m glad I finally sat down and read it, though I think these poems are more enchanting as a child, when love is all passion and romance.

I really liked some poems, thoughts others were okay, and didn’t really like others. I also think Shakespeare is overrated so the couple poems by him in this collection made me groan. But other than that, cute little collection for a rainy day.

[Hope · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's been awhile since I've been able to convince myself to read anything. I'm not sure if it's the quarantine isolation, the depression, or simply busying myself with other things. Nevertheless, despite these things, I picked up this book, after a bit of idle browsing on the library website, looking for a specific poem. I've never been one that loves poems, and overall I didn't find myself floored by this book. But it was short enough, interesting enough, and managed to reach out to my emotions enough that I finished it. It was certainly a quick read, and collects a lot of famous love poems that I'd read before, in one place or another, all together into one book. I'm grateful at least to have read something again, and hopefully I might continue reading. If anyone is looking for a short but fun book of love poems, though, this might just do the trick.

[Kris · Rating 3 out of 5]

I held this book in high school and I presented “What Lips My Lips Have Kissed” by Edna St. Vincent Millay in English class. Now, nearly a decade later, I hold this book again but with a different poem by her stuck in my head…

Time Does Not Bring Relief

“Time does not bring relief; you all have lied
Who told me time would ease me of my pain!
I miss him in the weeping of the rain;
I want him at the shrinking of the tide;
The old snows melt from every mountain-side,
And last year’s leaves are smoke in every lane;
But last year’s bitter loving must remain
Heaped on my heart, and my old thoughts abide.
There are a hundred places where I fear
To go, — so with his memory they brim.
And entering with relief some quiet place
Where never fell his foot or shone his face
I say, “There is no memory of him here!”
And so stand stricken, so remembering him.”

[Lucy 80s girl · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a okay book. I didn't like how the poems were by multiple authors or multiple generations. Some poems I could relate to but I didn't really like them. And it was okay but I think maybe more recent poetry is my kind.

[Annburnett · Rating 3 out of 5]

A great book of love poems and love letters.

[Zo · Rating 5 out of 5]

love poems my beloved :( really enjoyed this curation, I pick it up to flip through it regularly

[shuhana · Rating 4 out of 5]

honestly really adorable but the cover is ugly ash lmaoo

[Mars]

God I need a boyfriend

[EIJANDOLUM · Rating 3 out of 5]

I love you as certain dark things are to be loved in secret between the shadow and the soul. (Pablo Neruda)

[Laura · Rating 5 out of 5]

In this collection of poems, Janeczko organizes the poems to follow the rhythm of love: Beginning of Love, In Love, Alone in Love, the End of Love, and Remembering Love. The poets represented range from the past (Shakespeare and Bradstreet) to the current (Angelou and Merwin), representing the timelessness of love and the feelings associated with having and with losing it.
As Janeczko writes in the introduction, “only the intensity of poetry could convey the intensity of what I was feeling, of what I had experienced” (x). While prose has more words to express the feelings and thoughts of a character, the brevity of poetry often speaks louder. The author chooses the style, the rhythm, and even the length and spacing to express an exact emotion or feeling. Each poem is unique just as each love is unique yet similar.
The combination of old poems with new ones bridges a gap in poetry and thus in poetry lessons. With the common theme of love, teachers and librarians can pair read a poem by a nineteenth century poet and one from recent years. For example, “Time Does not Bring Relief” by Edna St. Vincent Millay’s powerful final lines and “Separation by W.S. Merwin are written in different time periods but reflect the same sorrow of lost love.
“Time Does not Bring Relief”
And entering with relief some quiet place
Where never fell his foot or shone his face
I say, “There is no memory of him here!”
And so stand stricken, so remembering him.

“Separation”
Your absence has gone through me
Like thread through a needle
Everything I do is stitched with color.

The book is a beautiful look at love, both the passion and the pain of giving your heart to another. It’s a great resource for a teacher or librarian to have to pull poems for class discussion or analysis. For poetry lovers, reading the book is like reuniting all your old friends (Langston Hughes, John Donne) with your new friends (Angelou and Lady Sono no Omi Ikuha).


I reviewed this book for my poetry class at TWU. www.laurathebookworm.blogspot.com

[November Ryan · Rating 3 out of 5]

lmao i got this in 7th grade from a book fair because i wanted the bracelet that came with it and then this turned out to be one of the collections that got me into poetry. i'm still very fond of it, though i like it less as an adult than i did at 13.

[Yakeishaa · Rating 5 out of 5]

The book is about why do people turn poerty to love and why do they like writing love poems. She "said" Francis darling, which who was born on november 13 in 1928 and was born at 9:oo in the evening. But it's to big for it's age, and seems much older. Here is one of the poems from the book which is "you have absorbed, I have senes at the present like as though I was dissolving." And it is on Jhon Keat's To Fanny Brawne and that is the person who has wrote the poem I just had wrote.

How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.
I love thee to depth and breadth and height
My soul can reach,when feeling out of sight
For the ends of being and ideal Grace.
I love thee to the level of everday's.
Most quiet need,by sun and candle-light.
I love thee freely, as men strive for right;
I love thee purely, as they turn from parise.
I love thee with the passion put to use
In my old griefs,and with my childhood's faith.
I love thee with a love I seemed to lose
With my lost saint's - I love with the breath,
Smiles,tears, of all my life! - and, if God choose,
I shall but love thee better afther death.

[Ashley · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a romantic book of poems written by a variety of authors and compiled and separated into the different phases of love by Paul B. Janeczko. The plot focuses on the different stages of love including the beginning of love, in love, heartbreak, renewal, ect. The style and language portrayed in the book is the most important component in my opinion because it conveys the intensity of some of the emotions in the book. Because of the variety of authors in this book and the idea that poems were chosen from throughout time, I think anyone can relate to at least some of these poems. Also, the idea that love is a universal feeling makes this collection very identifiable. I found myself relating a lot to some in particular. I think that the theme of love is conveyed beautifully throughout the book and this book could be an important tool to possibly get girls in particular to appreciate poetry and I think it helps teach some of the elements of poetry in a way that might be more interesting to some readers because it gives a unique perspective on love.

[Lila · Rating 3 out of 5]

Genre: YA, Poetry, Love/Romance
Despite my misgivings at first I really enjoyed this book. It is a collection of poems and letters about love from classic authors such as Elizabeth Barret Browning and others. It divides the entries into different sections, corresponding to the various phases of love, infatuation, deep love, heart break, renewal, etc. The poems very beautiful and I really appreciated the categories and progression of the sections. The book is short and I think would give teens a fuller perspective on love then in many other romance books.

[Debbie · Rating 4 out of 5]

A collection of poems that traces the path of love from the first flutter in the heart to heartbreak and acceptance of a lost love. I found some old favorites and also discovered some poets who I would like to know more about.

Excellent collection.

[Elizabeth Gibbs · Rating 4 out of 5]

Janeczko describes this collection of poems as "Poems that speak of the shades of love." (p. xiii) From the dawning of the touch of love to the storm when it is over, Janeczko has found a poem to display each feeling.

[Shabrina Ws · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ketika kau beranjak tua dan beruban dan tidur melulu,
mengantuk di depan perapian, pangkulah buku ini,
bacalah perlahan dan mimpikan pandangan lembut
yang pernah ada di matamu, beserta bayangan dalamnya
-Ketika Kau Beranjak Tua, William butler Yeats

[Caroline · Rating 3 out of 5]

The very interesting ones:

The Beginning of Love
To Celia by Ben Jonson (p.13)

In Love
To My Dear and Loving Husband by Anne Bradstreet (p.29)
I Want to Die While You Love Me by Georgia Douglas Johnson (p.42)

Remembering Love
Longing by Matthew Arnold (p.86)

[Stacey · Rating 3 out of 5]

A collection of love letters, poems, etc. There were some lovely things in there.

[Nanaku · Rating 3 out of 5]

nice poems from many people in the world

[Robin]

A sweet little anthology of love poems, from its highs to lows. Sap that I am, I was moved to tears a few times. A nice summer read.

[Amanda · Rating 2 out of 5]

Definitely not the best selection of poems, but I enjoyed some by Shakespeare

[Lydia · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the few books that managed to touch my softest self.
It is funny how we tend to look in poetry when love comes around, isn't?

[Hilary · Rating 4 out of 5]

endearing, I just floated away, dreaming of that special someone.

[Dodi Prananda · Rating 3 out of 5]

Buku yang manis untuk mereka yang sedang jatuh cinta

[Kelley · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love this collection of poems and letters about love at all stages 💕